Jared Allen's 22 sacks last season set a Vikings franchise record, but the Pro Bowl pass rusher, 30, who went without a sack in the season-opening overtime victory against Jacksonville last week, believes sacks are not a fair way to judge a defensive player.

"I consider myself a defensive player," he said. "Sacks are kind of how we get judged these days. There are plenty of opportunities to win games. When it's all said and done, hopefully one day people will look back and say I played the entire game the way it's supposed to be played. I never wanted to be considered just a third-down specialist.

"For me, stopping the run is probably 10 times more important than getting after the passer because if you can't stop the run, you never get a chance to pass-rush."

After rushing for 84 yards on 17 carries against Jacksonville just 81/2 months after major knee surgery performed by James Andrews of Birmingham, Ala., Vikings running back Adrian Peterson received a text from the noted surgeon.

"You did a good job," Peterson said Andrews texted.

Vikings kicker Blair Walsh wasn't the only University of Georgia alum to do well in a NFL debut last week. Walsh's college teammate Drew Butler averaged 47.3 yards while punting three times for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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"I guess he got to watch a little bit of my game, so that was nice," said Walsh, who got a call from Butler. "We wished each other luck and said to do the same stuff we did in college.

"He was disappointed they lost to Denver, but he did pretty well."

Not only was it difficult for Jerome Simpson to have to watch the Vikings play without him in their season-opening victory, his dog couldn't stand it, either.

Simpson, the wideout signed as a free agent during the offseason, is suspended for the first three games of the season for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. He watched the Vikings' 26-23 overtime victory on TV at his Twin Cities home with his "little French bulldog," he said.

"The dog couldn't take too much of me yelling at the TV, so he left the room," Simpson said.

Simpson, who said he "cheered my guys on" while watching on TV, said it was "very tough" not being on the field with his teammates.

"Not being able to be out there and make plays and have fun," he said. "Now I'm just literally counting down the days until I can get back on the field."

That would be Sept. 24, in time to prepare for the Sept. 30 game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.

Syracuse, which the Gophers football team will host Saturday night, Sept. 22, lost 42-41 at home to Northwestern in its season opener, then gave up 42 points in a loss to Southern California. On Saturday, the Orange beat Football Championship Subdivision opponent Stony Brook 28-17.

Joel Maturi, a Notre Dame grad, was the Gophers' athletics director for 10 years but said he never was aware of any discussions about his alma mater joining the Big Ten. Last week, the Irish, while remaining independent in football, moved from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"I think years ago there were discussions between Notre Dame and the Big Ten, but I don't believe there were any during my tenure," Maturi said. "I can't speak for (Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany), but it's obvious that it had to be all sports or not at all."

Brothers Jim and Keith Fahnhorst, both Gophers football standouts, went on to play in Super Bowls for the San Francisco 49ers.

Keith, 60, who is in the financial business in Minneapolis, underwent a kidney transplant about eight years ago, and now Jim, 53, who helps coach defense at Maple Grove High, has challenging kidney complications.

"Genetics," Jim said. "I'm OK. I'm hanging in there."

Those were PGA Tour pros Steve Stricker and Tim Herron at Windsong Farm last week conducting a corporate clinic for Allianz. Herron, of Deephaven, also played with local pals at Big Fish in Hayward, Wis., and shot 66-67.

Michael Floyd, the Cretin-Derham Hall grad and Arizona Cardinals wideout, wasn't thrown a pass in his NFL debut Sunday in a 20-16 victory over Seattle.

Meanwhile, T.J. Feely, grandson of late College of St. Thomas men's basketball coach Tom Feely, kicked two field goals for the Cardinals.

Ex-Twin Al Newman is coaching the 16-and-under team for the Minnesota Baseball Academy based in Vadnais Heights. The team competes year-round and has scheduled tournaments in Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, and Vero Beach and Fort Myers, Fla.

The new athletics director at Minneapolis Roosevelt is Dennis Stockmo, who replaced Al Frost. The school's new football coach is former Gophers linebacker Junior Eugene. Roosevelt is in the market for a boys basketball coach.

Whitney Taney, who was 166-0 during her Edina High tennis career before a standout career at Michigan, has taken an assistant women's tennis coaching position with the Gophers.

Timberwolves player development coach Shawn Respert will be inducted into the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame on Thursday.

The Wolves' Kevin Love will be in Minneapolis next weekend for his youth basketball camp. Love is scheduled to make the ceremonial first pitch at the Twins-Yankees game Sept. 26 at Target Field.

Former North Stars Willi Plett and Brad Maxwell, and former Twin Tony Oliva, will appear at an autograph show Saturday at HarMar Mall.

Those were four of the six seniors who led Stillwater High to the 1962 Suburban Conference basketball championship -- Dick Bartkey, Mike Campbell, Bob Liberty and Dick Edstrom -- at their 50th class reunion at the Lowell Inn the other evening. Their combined vertical jump now, Edstrom says, is less than a foot.

Wolves guard Ricky Rubio returns to Minneapolis on Wednesday after having his knee examined in Vail, Colo.

Ex-Vikings coach Brian Billick will be Fox's analyst for Sunday's Vikings-Colts game in Indianapolis.

Stillwater's Turner Uppgren, a sophomore lacrosse star at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, has committed to Duke, which has one of the country's elite lacrosse programs.

Mitch Brown, a Rochester Century grad who received an $800,000 signing bonus from the Cleveland Indians this summer, is off to a 2-0 start with a 3.58 earned-run average and 26 strikeouts in 27 innings in the Arizona Fall League.

Wolves coach Rick Adelman is expected to return to Minneapolis late this week to prepare for training camp.

Two-time former Gophers NCAA heavyweight wrestling and Bellator mixed martial arts champion Cole Konrad on retiring from fighting for a career in agricultural commodity trading: "I thoroughly enjoyed my time inside the Bellator cage, but having the consistency and stability of going to the office every day is something that just made sense to me."

The Sioux Falls Skyforce NBA D-League, which has among its affiliates the Timberwolves, will hold a tryout at the Wolves' Target Center practice facility Sept. 24. Former DeLaSalle and North Dakota star Travis Bledsoe is expected to try out.

The La Mirada (Calif.) City Council meeting last week honored the Wolves' Derrick Williams for contributions to his community.

The state's top prep football recruit is Tartan defensive back Keelon Brookins, according to rivals.com.

Only 9 percent of Twins fans polled by PublicPolicyPolling.com believe manager Ron Gardenhire should be fired, while 57 percent would oppose a firing. Thirty-four percent didn't have an opinion.

The Twins, even if they were willing to compete financially for a top free-agent starter, probably would have to overpay. Virtually every team intent on contending next season will be in the free-agent market for starting pitching, and other than Zack Greinke, there isn't much available.

Greinke is expected to cost at least $120 million over six years, and the Twins certainly aren't going to do that. Clearly, the Twins will have to develop starters from within the organization. It'll be interesting whether Terry Ryan, who still has "interim" on his general manager nameplate, is willing to wait several years for that to happen.

Because of the Twins' 2013 schedule, which includes 15 home games in April (nine on weekdays) and only nine home games in July, local brokers are expected to cut back on bulk purchases.

One reason Andrei Kirilenko signed with the Timberwolves was that his son wants to play hockey.

If St. John's football coach John Gagliardi, 85, who has 486 victories and 134 losses after Saturday's 43-21 loss to St. Thomas, didn't win another game for the next 35 years, he'd still finish his incredible career with a winning record.

Tickets for the Twins-Yankees series Sept. 24-26 at Target Field are down to $6 on StubHub. On the street, tickets are expected to be as low as $5.

It still looks as if the Twins could end up moving their Class A affiliate from Beloit, Wis., to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, if they can't agree on a new deal soon. Cedar Rapids, which had the Los Angeles Angels as an affiliate this year, opens its 2013 season against Beloit on April 4.

Wild players would have received their first paychecks Oct. 15 if there wasn't a lockout.

That was ex-Timberwolves guard Troy Hudson and ex-Gophers forward Dan Coleman playing with current Wolves Brandon Roy, Chase Budinger and Nikola Pekovic in an open workout in Minneapolis last week.

Look for the Gophers athletics department to host the Villa 7 leadership consortium next spring. The noted national symposium features the country's elite assistant men's and women's college basketball coaches.

DISH customers were not able to view Saturday's Gophers-Western Michigan football game because the satellite network and the Big Ten Network were unable to agree on a new deal Friday. Technical difficulties shut down the BTN's Minnesota-Western Michigan telecast for part of the first half.

Plans are for Mancini's Char House and O'Gara's Bar and Grill to be the first two establishments in St. Paul that on Tuesday will kick off video lottery electronic pull-tabs as a fundraiser for the new Vikings stadium.

That was Cretin grad Mal Scanlan, brother of Cretin-Derham Hall football coach Mike Scanlan, making an impassioned pregame speech to his alma mater before the Raiders upended Stillwater 27-13 on Friday night.

OVERHEARD

NHL aficionado Justin Morneau on when he believes the league's lockout will end: "Christmas would be my guess, but who knows? It's tough for how much the game's grown to take another step backward, especially with all the news (the Wild) made here."